Salmon restoration projects in Clallam and Jefferson counties have been awarded a combined total of nearly $6.2 million.
The state Salmon Recovery Funding Board and Puget Sound Partnership announced Wednesday the awarding of more than $61 million in grants to 155 projects across that state which aim to restore salmon habitat, according to a press release.
“These grants fund important work,” said Jeff Breckel, chair of the Salmon Recovery Funding Board, in the release. “They are funding organizations to undo the damage we have done to our rivers, bays and shorelines in the past and helping us make our waterways more hospitable to salmon.”
As Washington’s population grew, the number of salmon dwindled.
By 2000, the federal government had declared wild salmon and steelhead species in nearly three-fourths of the state as threatened or endangered, according to the press release.
The state Legislature created the Salmon Recovery Funding Board in 1999 to determine how best to distribute state and federal funding to recovery projects.
The grants fund a range of projects, from planting trees on riverbanks to shade and keep the water cool for salmon, to removing pipes that carry rivers under roads and often get clogged or are too high for salmon to reach, to digging channels off fast-flowing rivers to create slower-moving water where fish can rest.
Many grants also target restoration work in Puget Sound and are funded through the Puget Sound Acquisition and Restoration program.
The grants awarded to Clallam County are:
• $50,658 to the 10,000 Years Institute to treat invasive plants along 46 miles of road along the Calawah River, along 128 miles of the river, along the lower end of its large tributaries, and on about 400 acres of its floodplain. In addition, the institute will map and assess floodplain forests for thinning and planting needs.
• $50,658 to the Clallam Conservation District to plant the banks of waterways in the Quillayute River watershed and caretake previous plantings. The conservation district will plant more than 48 acres and maintain plants on another 12 acres at multiple sites throughout the watershed.
• $268,423 to the Clallam Conservation District to restore and maintain riverbank habitat in the Big River watershed and provide outreach to landowners. The conservation district will target areas that lack trees along its waterways and those dominated by reed canary grass and Himalayan blackberry, which inhibit properly functioning habitat for fish.
• $107,788 to Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe to buy up to 32 acres along the lower Dungeness River near other conserved land. The land includes the river and its forested channel networks. Purchasing the land would bring the total area of conserved land along the lower Dungeness River to 200 acres.
• $120,000 to Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe to evaluate ways to increase the flow of water in the lower three miles of the Dungeness River and develop a preliminary design to implement a restoration project. The habitat throughout this reach of the river is worsened by increasingly low flows during drought years, requiring manual efforts to help salmon through this reach.
• $376,460 to Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe to place logjams in the upper Dungeness River to improve salmon spawning and rearing habitat. In the 20th century, government agencies and private landowners regularly removed logjams in the upper river, damaging salmon habitat. This project is part of an ongoing and phased effort by the tribe to restore logjams and increase salmon productivity in that part of the watershed.
• $430,000 to Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe to continue planting trees and shrubs in the former Mills and Aldwell reservoirs on the Elwha River. Planting trees and bushes along a waterway shades the water, keeping it cool for fish.
• $350,000 to Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe to conduct geomorphic, hydrologic and hydraulic analyses on nearly two miles of the lower Elwha River and its floodplain. The analysis will support engineering designs for restoration of a reach that runs upstream of the U.S. Highway 101 bridge to the boundary with Olympic National Park.
• $350,000 to Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe to complete studies and develop engineered restoration plans for about five miles of the Pysht River. The tribe will conduct a geomorphic, hydrologic and hydraulic analysis of a segment of the river to support the development of engineered restoration plans and cost estimates for future work, including placing logjams, which can create spawning and rearing habitat.
• $350,000 to Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe to complete an engineering design for a project to restore the lower South Fork Pysht River, the largest tributary to the Pysht River. This area is chronically lacking in large woody materials in the river.
• $712,449 to North Olympic Salmon Coalition to design and build a project to place logjams in lower the 0.8 mile of Ossert Creek. The creek is a tributary to the Hoko River.
• $337,885 to North Olympic Salmon Coalition to complete final designs for a project to place logjams in the Hoko River, excavate side channels and plant 36 acres of riverbank in an area known as the Upper Cowan Ranch, which is part of Hoko River State Park.
• $584,367 to North Olympic Salmon Coalition to restore 45 acres of habitat along 2.3 miles of the Dungeness River near Sequim.
• $175,374 to North Olympic Salmon Coalition to plant trees and shrubs on 37 acres of abandoned pastureland next to the lower Hoko River and estuary and the lower reaches of the Little Hoko River.
The grants awarded to Jefferson County are:
• $86,060 to the 10,000 Years Institute to control reed canarygrass and other non-native plants along the banks of the Snahapish River to protect rare, high-quality fish habitat and restore natural river processes.
• $139,991 to Hoh Indian Tribe to develop preliminary designs to remove a fish-blocking culvert in Ruby Creek, a tributary of the Hoh River.
• $223,450 to Jefferson County to complete a final design for a project to restore part of the Powerlines Reach in the lower Dosewallips River.
• $376,916 to Jefferson Land Trust to buy 6.7 acres south of Discovery Bay in the Snow Creek watershed in Jefferson County. In addition, the land trust will reach out to eight nearby landowners along Snow Creek just west of U.S. Highway 101 to gauge their interest and willingness to protect their land permanently and restore their section of Snow Creek.
• $127,897 to Quinault Indian Nation to develop conceptual designs for projects to fix road failures in the upper Quinault River floodplain.
• $350,104 to Wild Salmon Center to design and implement a project to place logjams and large pieces of wood in about 1.5 miles of Goodman Creek.
“Recovering salmon in Puget Sound is urgent work,” said Larry Epstein, deputy director of the Puget Sound Partnership, in the release. “We have seen significant declines in salmon populations, and we cannot afford to lose ground. We also have seen that when we do the right things in the right places, salmon can begin to recover. These grants represent the collective effort of many organizations, agencies and communities working together to restore habitat and ensure salmon remain a vital part of our environment, culture and economy.”
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Reporter Emily Hanson can be reached by email at emily.hanson@peninsuladailynews.com.
